Covid survivor warns against big family gatherings this Christmas

John Hilton, from Holgate, said people need to protect family members from the deadly virus, particularly those who are elderly.

He commented: "Why anybody would risk a large family gathering just because it is Christmas is beyond me. After all it is only one day."

The 75-year-old was admitted to York Hospital in March and spent eight days there before being allowed home.

Speaking about his experience, he said: "I woke up at 2am in the morning. I was shaking all over and hallucinating.

"My wife Jenny phoned for an ambulance. I remember being taken to hospital.

"The doctor said I had got Covid-19, E. coli and pneumonia all at once.

"I was on constant drips."

John had a high temperature and remembers everything tasted like iron when he tried to eat.

He said it "focuses your mind" when a doctor stands at the end of your bed and asks you to sign your own 'do not resuscitate' form.

"I was not on a ventilator even though the medical team said my lungs were crazed like a broken car windscreen," John added.

"What people went through who were on ventilators I dread to think and some of them will never fully recover."

He was discharged from the hospital on March 21, but for a number of weeks later suffered from exhaustion whenever he tried to do anything.

John said, as an "avid reader" of the Press and especially the letters page, he has recently noticed several correspondents claiming to know the effects of Covid-19.

"As one of the first people to be hospitalised with this illness I wish to put the record straight," he said.

"Undoubtedly, the younger you are, the less severe the symptoms but I can assure you that the illness is nothing like flu.

"I would gladly have flu every year rather than one dose of Covid.

"Why do people who have never experienced the horror of the illness always think they know better than the medical profession?"